Marguerite Gautier-Van Berchem

Marguerite Augusta Gautier-van Berchem (born Marguerite Augusta Berthout van Berchem; 11 April 1892 – 23 January 1984) was a Swiss archaeologist and art historian from a patrician family, who specialised both in early Christian art and early Islamic art. She was also an active member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and was one of the first women to hold a senior position there.

Life Family background and education Marguerite's father Max van Berchem (1863–1921) was an orientalist and historian who undertook scientific expeditions to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. He is known as a pioneer of Arabic epigraphy, who initiated the Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum, an important collection of Arabic inscriptions. Marguerite's paternal grandparents were Alexandre (1836–1872), who inherited the Château de Crans in Crans-près-Céligny from his maternal family, and Mathilde (née Sarasin,1838–1917), who inherited the Château des Bois (also called Turretin) in Satigny. Both were rentiers, who received an income from their assets. Their families were part of a patrician class that "turned to banking and philanthropic activities at the end of the 19th century, after losing control of the major public offices in Geneva."

On 11 June 1891, Max van Berchem married the 21-year-old Lucile Elisabeth Frossard de Saugy. In the winter of 1892/93, Max and Alice van Berchem travelled together to Egypt, Palestine and Syria for several months, but it is unclear whether they took Marguerite with them on that journey. Elisabeth died on 2 June 1893 in Satigny, shortly after their return to Geneva, when Marguerite was just over one year old.

The widower remarried, to an Alice Naville, and had six more children with her: five daughters and one son. In the extensive letter correspondences of Max van Berchem, Marguerite was the only one of his seven children whom he writes about specifically. Due to her privileged background, she was sent on to study archaeology at the prestigious École du Louvre et des Hautes Etudes in Paris. This group included female pioneers such as Marguerite Cramer, Lucie Odier, Suzanne Ferrière, and also van Berchem: "Marguerite van Berchem selflessly devoted her time and effort to the work at hand, and was soon appointed head of the German Service, a position she filled with skill and efficiency."

Between the World Wars In early 1921, van Berchem's father died from pneumonia at the age of just 58.

At the same time, van Berchem kept volunteering for the ICRC. In 1934, for instance, she accompanied her fellow pioneering colleagues Marguerite Frick-Cramer and Lucie Odier to Tokyo, where they represented the organisation at the Fifteenth International Red Cross Conference. On 23 October 1944 van Berchem wrote to the ICRC member Albert Lombard, asking for permission to continue work despite the fact that contact between the colonial service and its French partner organisations was cut off in autumn of 1944, stating that "the work undertaken in Geneva for indigenous people has an impact beyond that of the other national services of the Agency because it is addressed to people that have been much abused by whites."

Post-WWII

One year after the end of the Second World War, van Berchem stressed in a publication her conviction that "differences in race, language and religion are no reasons that should divide the peoples, but that there are laws and profound links which may make this diversity a great wealth."

Following this episode, van Berchem undertook a second trip to Algeria in 1949 and another year later a first reconnaissance mission to Sedrata. thumb Stucco from Sedrata at the Louvre, excavated by van Berchem's teamIn 1951, van Berchem was elected a member of the ICRC, In contrast, Marguerite van Berchem remained a regular member for 18 years.

Death

Gautier-van Berchem died on 23 January 1984 at the age of 91. Upon her death, the former vice-president of the ICRC Jean Pictet, wrote in an obituary which was published by the Journal de Genève, which said: "A native of Geneva, she admirably embodied this ‹Geneva spirit›, thoughtful and reserved, willingly rebellious and caustic, but also generous and capable of igniting good causes. She was the heiress to this scientific and humanist tradition, which, aristocratic or popular, is the common heritage of all Genevans." Her husband, Bernard Gautier, died in 1984 also. Their graves are at the Ancien Cimetière de Cologny, where her father is buried as well.

Legacy

In 1973, Gautier-van Berchem, who did not have immediate heirs of her own, donated the Villa Saladin-van Berchem to the Swiss Confederation. Though it had been the property of the Saladin family for seven generations, Gautier-van Berchem had not inherited it from that part of her family, but purchased it in 1955. Since she did not want the estate, which was built in 1715 at the Plateau de Frontenex in Cologny overlooking Lake Geneva, to fall into foreign hands, she gave it to the government under the condition that the state of the architectural ensemble would stay inalienable. The villa has served since then as the residence of the permanent representative of Switzerland to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Selected works

Mosaïques Chrétiennes du IVme au Xme Siècles, with Etienne Clouzot. Geneva 1924 The Mosaics of the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem and of the Great Mosque at Damascus. In: Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell: Early Muslim Architecture Vol. 1. Oxford 1932, pp. 152–252 Les Sections auxiliaires du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, Geneva 1947 Deux campagnes de fouilles à Sedrata en Algérie. In: Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 1952, pp. 242–246 Sedrata. Un chapitre nouveau de l'histoire de l'art Musulman. Campagnes de 1951 et 1952, in: Ars Orientalis, Vol. 1 (1954), pp. 157–172 Sedrata et les anciennes villes berbères du Sahara dans les récits des explorateurs du XIXème siècle, in: Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Vol. 59 (1960), pp. 289–308 Palmettes, rosaces et bordures dans les décors de Sedrata, L.A. Mayer Memorial Volume (1895–1959), in: Eretz Israël: Archæological, Historical and Geographical Studies, Vol. 7 (1964), pp. 6–16. Le palais de Sedrata dans le désert saharien. In: Studies in Islamic Art and Architecture, in honour of Professor K.A.C. Creswell. Cairo 1965, pp. 8–29 Anciens décors de mosaïques de la salle de prière dans la Mosquée des Omayyades à Damas. In: Mélange offerts à M. Maurice Dunand (= Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 46). Beirut 1970, pp. 287–304 La Jérusalem musulmane dans l'œuvre de Max van Berchem, with Solange Ory, Lausanne 1978 Muslim Jerusalem In The Work Of Max van Berchem, with Solange Ory, Fondation Max van Berchem, Geneva 1982